Thursday, 25 July 2013

Ear Stretching

I mentioned during the Twitter bloggers chat last night that I might do a post on ear stretching. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but I thought I would do it for those who did show an interest. This is actually my second time stretching, having had plugs for most of my teenage years. I eventually took them out because I missed wearing earrings but now, I seem to never wear earrings anyway so I thought I might as well go back to plugs as they're very hassle free and I'm all about that.

Stretching isn't recommended if you've just had your ears pierced. You need to have had pierced ears for a good ole while and they have to completely healed. If you're a first timer, you need to start of with a very small stretch, like the one I have in my ear or the metal talon in the first picture which starts at an even smaller point. Metal is best if you have sensitive skin. The rest of my plugs are plastic and you can also get them in glass and wood. The important thing about stretching is that it take time. Skin is stretchy, yes, but you don't want to force it. I know people who have forced them and you just end up with a bloody mess of an ear. Don't do that. You need to regularly wiggle and rotate the stretch through the ear. If it starts to bleed, hurt or burn, stop! Give it a few days rest and start again. I typically go up 2mm at a time and then put a plug in, to give my ears a bit of rest and to allow them to adjust. When you buy plugs, you should get some O rings with them, but if not, just ask. You need these to stop your plugs from falling out.

Stretches and plugs are measured in mm. The white one in my ear goes up to 3mm and the biggest I have goes up to 8mm (the blue stretch). As you can see, you can get solid plugs, see through plugs and tunnels which have a back that screws on to them. There's tons of variety. And if any of you are considering it and are worried about your ears not shrinking back, don't worry. Before, I went up to an 8mm and mine shrank straight back to normal pierced ears within a matter of weeks. Anything under 1cm is absolutely fine.Another thing is to keep them clean! Remember when you had your ears first pierced and you get that bit of crusty stuff. Yeah, you'll get that all over again but it's nothing a warm wet Q tip can't sort out. If they start to look inflammed, add sea salt. Once you've gotten up to a bigger size and are wearing plugs regularly, don't forget to clean them then too. Otherwise, they can smell. Quite bad. You have been warned.

So I think that's all of my advice for stretching your earsAny questions, please either here or on Twitter